tBrm MA8»AtT POST. F»B»PORT, K V.. nRinAY, MAY 17, 1»1«
i^HHaflMiHaMawaHMNiri
1
* * * *
*** *******.***•***
The Long Arm of Mercy
By DR. FRANK CRANE
The Red Cross is the Long Arm of Mercy.
It is the Kindness of Mankind—organized.
In Man is an Angel and a Devil, a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Red Cross is ihe Good, aroused, energized to thwart the Bad.
It is the best antidote we know to the bane of war.
There are other Charities, more or less helpAil. The Red Cross is the mightiest of all Charities, the Love and Pity of all men made supremely efficient.
If, as Emerson .said, "sensible men and conscientious men all over the world are of one religion," this is the ex¬ pression of that religion.
The Red Cross is Humanity united in Service.
It asks no man's opinion; only his need.
Black or White, PViend or Foe, to the Red Cross there is no difference; it only asks: "Who is Suffering?" And to him it goes. _^
The Red Cross is so Efficient that Governments recog¬ nize it; so Pure in its purpose that whoever wi.shes well his fellow men, desires to help it; so Clean in its administration that the most suspicious can find no fault in it.
The Red Cross not only seeks to alleviate the cruelties of War; it Is the expression of those human sentinments that some day will put an end to War.
It is the impulse of Love, striving to overcome the im¬ pulse of Hate.
It is Mercy's co-operation struggling against War's ri¬ valries. *
It is the one Society in which every Man, Woman and Child should be enrolled; for it knows no sects, no preju¬ dices, no protesting opinion; the human being does not live that does not feel that the starving should- be fed, the sick tended and the wounded healed.
Majestic and divine is this Long Arm of Mercy; it finds the fallen on the battlefield, it brings the nurse and the physician to the victim in the hospital; it leads the weeping orphan to a home; it feeds the staining, cares for the pest- smitten whom all others abandon, and pours the oil of Help and Pity into the bitter wounds of the World.
Where a volcano has wrought desolation in Japan, or a Flood in China, or a Hurricane in Cuba, or a Famine in India, or a Plague in Italy, or ravaging Armies in Poland, Servia or Belgium, there flies the Red Cross, the Angel of God whom the fury of men cannot banish from the Earth; and to the Ends of the Earth, over all the ways of the Seven Seas, wherever is Human Misery, there is extended, to bless and to heal, its Long Arm of Mercy.
THE SCARLET CROSS
By Margaret Widdemer
Of the VlBiiante*.
What 18 It tbat you do today, who lift the Scarlet CrossT Por aU the withered world is down In ruiu and in loss,
And all the world hears clasblng sword, and hears no sound less plain— What can you do who lift the Cross, but heal to flght again?
We guard tbe women left alone, heartbroken for their dead. We snve the children wandering where all suve Fear has fled,
We raise again the brolcen town* swept down by shot nnd sbeU, We heal again the broken souls hopeless from learning Uc-U—
Oh, tliey who saw but Qrlet and Hate see now our red sign plain— We save the sad world's soul alive that War had nearly slain I
Bombardments Quinot Drive This Woman Back
8h« Thinks Coffee for Soldlera Mor« Important Than Safety.
The following extracts are taken trom a letter written by a Red Cross Canteen worker, Helen McBlhone, an American woman and college graduate aow located In « district almost coQ- latautly under bombardiueut:
"Foyer dea Allies, "Bar-le-Duc.
"Things look very black to me. I am discouraged «t the big outlook of affairs aud alao at my small doings, but It may b« the blackness that comes before Aawu. Let us hope so. Our m«a csrtaiiily need belp now as much •s the poUus. I am beglunluf to see tiuMS who have been at the front. In (act, I am begluutng to see ¦oiue of tbs results ot this life. .Tbey sre sick and homesick, aud worse things lui*e happened tu them. 8ev- ff«l hava said: 'All we ask Is to fet to tie fropt aad do wlutt we have to do. nythUic la bsttv than this life. . . Tkls BMNmlnc we bad mtfun Ara«rtcaas ttes I iMtvs sssn ttefore at oas timt.
Om mm* ¦• to ¦*• m9M I wm
drawing coffee from a big marmlte as fust as 1 could 1111 cups aud, pointing to his pipe, said, 'Tobnc, tobac' I said,'Do you want some tobacco?' He seeiued stunned for a moment and then said: 'Do you know it nearly gave uie a fit to hear you speak Eng¬ lish. I haven't heard a woman speak Engljsh In live months.' He said he had been walking about in the cold Biuee four o'clock last night. He couldn't find a hotel or a bright light because, of coarse, everytblni^ Is closed and darkened ou account of the bom¬ bardments. . . . The Americans are very iond of ham sandwiches. They eat much more than the French aol¬ dlers. and when they flrst came to and ordered six eggs apiece It caused con- steruatlon throughout the land. Th4 funniest thing of all Is to hear tbe Sammies grandly urging these wealthy English girls to 'keep the change—oh, keep the change!' . . . We start the day at Ave and work continuously an- Ul nine, when three fresh cantinierea relieve us. At flve we go ou for the eveulug shift from flve to eight, and It la the most exciting and exhauatinn of the shifts. There Is a certatn time when they come down on us like a flood, eight or ten deep around tho counter aud three or four hundred al» together In this little room, as eager and Ured as schoolboys,"
llu» (orecolBS letter indlcstes that ear soldiers look to the Bed Onmm Oaateen as an oasis Ut s dessH Tbay would uot hST* It tl U wars lat fair
A Great Net of Mercy drawn through an Ocean of Unspeakable Pain*'
eAmericanRedCross
i
-;i
****** ** **• ** * * * *' * ** *
TTie Call From No Man^s Land
The Spending of Your
Hundred MilKon Dollars
Busiest Budget in All the World Is a Red
Cross War Fund—Every Dollar Spent
Alleviates Misery.
***** **. ***?
Compare Your Baby's
First Four Years
With Ilis
lit 1018 little Marie was bom tn a tU- lage not far from MeBlerc|^ In tha Ardennes.
In 1914 MaMe's father, called to tha colors, fell at the Marne. And Maria and her mother stayed In the TtUagaw which was now fn tbe Oermans' handSL
In IQIS a poster was pasted up ob the door of the yiilagc church, and that night Marie's mother Taalahcd. along with a score or more of other women.
In 1010 Marie was itlli Uving In thst village—existing through the charity of the few elderly folk the Oermana permitted to stay.
In 1017 Marie, with ell the children under fourteen years and all the old people left alive In tbe village, waa bandied into a crowded car and shipped Into Germany, rotiud through Switzerland and thence Into France, arriving at Evian. She was underfed, of coarse, emaciated, sickly, dirty, too lightly dressed for the time of year. And she came Into Evian with not a relaUve, not a friend left in all France to take care of licr.
Who took her? Your Red Cross I
Over there In ICvlan jour Ked Crosa took charge of her, cared for her In the Red Cross Children's Hospital, clothed her, fed her, built up her strengtii, tanglit her to pUiy—and then helped the French authorities find her a HOME.
Multiply Mnrle t)y 500 and you will have some idea of just one day's work your Ked Cross does at Evinn. It ia only one of the Red Cross activities In France, to be sure—but for Just that one alone can you help being proud ol it? Can yon help being glad you ara a menib<;r of It, Bupportlny Its great work of humanity? Can you help want¬ ing It to go on helping the Maries and the "grand-dnddies" that come in at Evian ? ' ,
Last summer the public subscribed a hundred million dollars to the Ked Cross.. At the latest statement over ejghty-ffve millions of it had been ap¬ propriated.
Wliere has it gone? you ask. For many months the world has been 'spending over a hundred million dol¬ lars a day for the destruction of life, limb and means of subsistence. Call up what you have read about the war's devastation. The American Red Cross' enormous job is to do whatever it can to alleviate that—not after the war, not after governments have deliber¬ ated and resolved ; but right now, at the minute, on the spot. It's amazing that It hsa done so much with so little money.
liast autumn the Italian army fell back precipitately. On your war map that meant rubbing out one line and drawing another half an inch further south. Over there in Italy it meant thousands of poor faiAIiles fleeing from their homes. Major Murphy, Red Cross Commissioner In Europe, rushed to the scene and wired: "Indescribably pathetic conditions exist, involving separation of mothers and children, cold, hunger, disease, death." In No- vemt>er and December the American Red Cross appropriated three million dollars for relief there—a large sum, yet small in comparison wltb the need.
Condensed Milk fer Chlldr«^ Soldiers are oaly • part of ths Bed Cross' work>^probebiy tbe smaller part. Bhrery instant, somewhere la the vast flood of dsatructtoa, a hand readuM ap la appaaL It is pretty apt to bs a cklld's haad or a wain's Whea tlM Had Cross r^schsia Pstrof rsd, It ssksd •*V|Mtt li «M ««
By WILL PAYNE
thing?" The government replied: "We must get condensed milk for the little children here." The commission got the milk. At one spot In France fnrm work was stopped by lack of horses. That meant more hunger. The Red Cross got In a big tractor and set It to plowing for the community.
There are a million needs. Cold, wet and the deadly physical strain of the trenches undermine men's consti¬ tutions. A frightful scourge of tuber- culolsls has developed in France. Tbe Red Cross has built sanatoria, pro¬ vided over a thousand beds and nurses.
Thirty Millions for France.
I bave here a big sheaf of sheets filled with figures. One item ia tlilrteeu million and odd dollars—the amount which, up to that time, had gone to tbe local chapters of tbe Red Cross In the United States for local relief. Twenty- flve per cent of the money subscribed tlgwugh the chapters eveutuaily goea tbat way.
Over thirty mlUionp bave been ap¬ propriated for work in France. Here Is a million and a quarter—in round numbers—for military hospitals aud dispensaries; over a million and a half for canteen service, where French aud American soldiers, relieved from tbe tranchea, cau get good food, a cot, a iMitb, and have their clothea disinfected —and ao go on for tbelr brief holiday clean, rest«d, nourislted. There are over three mlllluua for hoiH>ltal supply •arrlce; half a milllou for rest sta-, tteas for American troops.
Aid of refugees—eleven tbouasad teaUlea—aeceunti for sesrly three rnlUton doltatm; cars and pnyvsattou of taiwrculosla tskes over two ¦alllloas; CAM of helpless chlldf^n over a snll-
Mgn: t«iM v«rk kl 4h immtvoA mst
trlcts, including care of flve thousand families and sufllclent reconstrucUon to make houses habitable, required ov^r two millions.
Misery on an Unparalleled Seals.
These are all large items; but the Ited Cross is grappling with human misery on an unparalleled scale—a world of It. The item for relief of the blind amounts to four hundred thou¬ sand dollars. The dispensary service sends supplies to more than thirty-four hundred hospitals. The Bed Cross re¬ ceives and distributes more than two hundred tons of supplies daily at Paris. For this distribution and its other work.it requires a big transportation service of motors and trucks. This transportation service bas coat a mil¬ lion and a half, and ita operating ex¬ penses run to a million dollars.
Every dollar It spends means misery alleviated. Its work is building abroad (or the United States the best good will hi this world. It U building the beet good will among ourselves. Whatever else the war may produce, we ahall l>e proud of our Bed Cross,
THE TKAIN THAT SAVED A NATION
Hovf the Red Crois Helped Roumania.
*******************
/ wmt to $ay to you (Aal no othor or^fiUntion stooe tht toorUt h«(f»» h4U ever done ntofc grtot conslrsclive epor* with th« tmeiemcy, *i»- p»toh amd unierttanding, •/ten itnd*r *Avm-§o oircsm- stesoef, that Ass keen doss •v Un AmsHosa Aatf Oross As tretkeo.
—Osssrel J*«r«Ata#.
************«««*«*«
Have you heard of what happened In Koumania when that stricken nation stood In rags and starving beftors tha shocked eyes of the world? We hacI thought ourselves grown uaed to tra^ edles nntll this greater horror stroclt a blow that "rotised atOl untotichea sympathlea *'¦
Aud yet we felt ao helpless^ you and I, CO terribly weak In our ability to o*- fer aid. But were we? After aU, were we not tha very ones who car¬ ried new life and hope to the heart of Roumanla? Ton shall be your own Judge.
Fighting with the desperation of da>- spalr, the shattered Roumanian army still struggled to beat off the Kaiser'* bloody Huns, who were mercilessly; trampling tlie life out of the little kingdom. And ttke Kaiser smiled bn» tally as he saw hla wolves at work and knew that from behind the linear attacking the fighting men of Rouma- nla from the rear, entering the homes where mothers clung to the frail, dlai> torted forms of their babies—waa star*- vatlon.
No country around Roumanla couldl belp her—aud America was too fU away. Thousands would die befora supplies held lu our own country could be seat her.
Hope was gone. Death by hungag and by the dripping aword of the Kaftt ser was closing In. A brave llttls tion was being tom to pieces.
Then came the mlrade. One ma ing the streets of Jaasy, the war ci tal of Roumanla. swelled* wtth aouni] |0( rejoicing. A city where the 'fore there was heard nothing I walls of the atarvtng and tiM fions of tliose moomlng Chshr now was awakeoed by ahouts
Ton. my friend ( ypu who ed In the heroic' arotfe of tha Red Croas, bad gone to llouuiania. A train of 81 cars packed to thetr ut with food. cUrttdug at upon tons of It, had after making a from the great American Bed trains fioUewed It; and clothed aod n^ Por weeks and bravs people of cared fur lu cou own Bad Crmh,
Bo WI blstoar rscords^ of s stttrdy ast; bsuds ol ths tbs vlctwt Otems.
